[url]http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/02/03/toronto-dogs-vegan-owners.html[/url]
I'd be VERY curious what the RAW feeders on our forum have to say about this.

Humans are omnivores - but i have heard that dogs are carnivores AND some sources say omnivores.

I've been a vegetarian for 15+ years with no ill effects....but dogs?...something instinctual (because I haven't done 'real' research) or my little voice, suggests to me that this is just flat out silly - that dogs are meant to eat meat.

Yes, we can force them to be vegan or vegetarian and they won't die...but this seems to get my spidey senses tingling. It doesn't feel right to me.

Am I off-base? Opinions?

Loki Love

February 4th, 2013 10:02 AM

If presented with the choice of filet mignon or a bowl full of carrots and broccoli.. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say which dogs would choose time and time again. That's all I need to know to convince me that dogs are carnivores first and omnivores second.

Can a dog do well on a vegan diet - the article seems to suggest such, although I'd be curious to see a full blood panel done up on those dogs to see if anything was off balance.

Jull

February 4th, 2013 10:25 AM

I guess is a personal choice... I mean, if humans can live in a vegan diet why couldn't the pups?

But I know that when I put the bowls down with meat and all sorts of veggies, these end up on the floor and meat is the first thing gone. I am no expert by any means, but my whole life I heard that dogs were carnivores and they needed the meat in their diets.

Even I am not a big meat eater, but I do appreciate the nice steak once in a while :D

Rgeurts

February 4th, 2013 10:38 AM

I'm defintiely not on board with this one. I know there have been a couple of "vegan" lines introduced recently, such as Ellen Degeneres' vegan dog food by Halo, but what I would like to see is a long term study. Dogs are meant to eat meat and, though they will eat vegetables, they do not digest them well. They have to be steamed then mashed to get much benefit and in these vegan lines, I'm sure they're highly processed, which would basically negate anything benficial. You can home cook the veggies, but then you run in to issues like having to supplement. Dogs also need Taurine for a healthy neurological system, and Taurine comes from meat and fish (organ meat has higher levels of Taurine). Sure, you can supplement, but why? I'll take natural nutrition for my babies (especially Nookie) any day. When you feed a diet that requires adding vitamins/minerals/amino acids due to the lack of "complete" nutrition, you always have the possiblity of deficiencies.

Just my :2cents:

Barkingdog

February 4th, 2013 01:15 PM

I have some friends that where vegetarian and they had a St Bernard dog that was feed a vegetarian diet too. The dog was healthy and there was story about dog in a news paper. Tragically some crackpot felt bad for the dog and poison it! I met the dog and he looked great, I was surprised as I did not think a dog could live on a vegetarian diet. I became a vegetarian in the late 60's and it was really hard to find restaurants that had any vegetarian menus. I was very healthy, I do eat chicken and fish now but had no red meat or pork or lamb since the late 60's.